A Tale of Three Wastelands
by Mytwistedbrastrap
Summary: Courier Six (aka the Lone Wanderer) gets stranded in a new wasteland, and happens upon Furiosa & Co. just when she thinks the sun might kill her before she ever sees any wildlife. The rating is for canon-typical violence, guns and whatnot.
1. Chapter 1

It had just been her for so long after they hit land in Australia that she was surprised to see another human, running in front of a giant truck driven by other humans. The courier crouched and came toward them, hoping for water in that tank, hoping not to be killed on sight.

The man running in front of the truck shouted when he saw her, and she held her hands over her head as she stood. "I need water! I've got my own containers, just please, I'll trade whatever you want for some water." The huge truck stopped, and the man with scarred lips took her pack off her before patting her down, removing weapons from her person as he went while a woman with a mechanical arm held a gun trained on her head.

"What clan are you from?" The woman asked.

"Clan? I come from New Vegas. I have no clan, or none that I can remember." She slowly moved one hand to reveal the scar on her forehead. "Guy shot me in the head for control of Vegas, and it scrambled some things up."

The woman seemed to weigh her words. "How good are you with that gun?"

"The best, ma'am. I can reliably take the head off anything within the range of this scope. What do you need done?"

"Just like that, huh?" A man jumped out of the truck and took off among protest from the others, and she held still when the man with the scarred lips found the knife in her boot.

"Careful with that, she's real sharp. take the hair right off your arm." The Courier watched as they went trough her gear. "May I please have a drink? I'll shoot who ever you want." She resisted the urge to lick her lips. "Do you want bullets? I don't have many, but I'll trade what I have. I have medical knowledge," She offered up. "I could remove those tumors, stitch your people up if you have materials. Please," She swallowed convulsively and rested her hands on top of her head. "Anything you want."

"You came from that direction? Directly?" The woman with the mechanical arm gestured to one of the others, and the blond ran to get a bucket and start filling it.

"Not directly, no. From the north. I can show you a map." She slowly moved one arm and gestured with her fingers to the scarred man. "Press the button closest to my wrist, it should come right up."

The man studied the Pip-boy for a moment before pressing the button. "Oi!" He backed off when it beeped.

"Sorry, I had the volume up pretty high. May I show you the map?"

The woman kept the gun trained on the Courier as she twisted her arm a little to see the screen. "Is this thing attached to you?"

"Yes. It keeps track of my bio-metrics and ammo, mostly. It's a radio receiver, and a holotape player." The Courier managed to meet the other woman's eyes. "Are you running from someone?"

"What's it to you?" The blonde had come back with a bucket of water, and the Courier managed to resist dunking her head first thing and wasting the water.

"You have a look about you. I need to get to my bag to refill my bottles. May I-"

"Go ahead. We could use another gun. How are you with moving vehicles?"

She hesitated, looking up at the war rig. "I've never seen one move before today. But I've fought my way off a boat before. I've fought Deathclaws, giant scorpions, and the Legion. I'm very good at trial by fire, ma'am, and I won't disappoint."

"Giant scorpions?"

"Deathclaw?"

"Creatures across the Saltwater. They do, however, require some rain. Unlike the lot of you."

"Rain?" The scarred man asked, watching the careful way she filled her containers, one at a time, before picking up the last quarter of the water and lifting it to her face to drink and soak her head.

"Water, falling from the sky. I... You all live very differently than I've ever seen. You want me to gun from on top of this thing, right?"

"Yes."

"Show me how to climb on it, then, while it's sitting here, so I don't have to figure it out on the run. This seems like an unexpected stop."

"Nux, show her. What's your name?"

"Six. Or Courier, whichever you prefer."

"Nux, show Six how to crawl around on this thing."

"Let's go."

She put her things back in her bag and stowed it in the cab before climbing up the rig after Nux. He showed her what moved and what didn't, what would bear her weight and what would not. "You've never been on a rig before? What about a motorcycle? Driven a patrol car?"

"No. Everything where I came from got fried in the bombs, way back."

"But you know battle?"

"I do. I won't let you all down. But tell me how you fight. I want to know everything you know."

They stayed on top of the rig for some time before he showed her how to climb around underneath the cab and into the engine block, which he said not to do unless Furiosa told her to. "Think you got it?"

"I do." She saw a glimmer of a shape through the haze of the sun and turned to face it. "I'll need my weapons back. I mean, I'll share, if you're short guns or bullets."

Nux nodded slowly, and they climbed down to get Six's gear. She tucked loaded pistols into their holsters all around her person and handed the extra pistols and shotgun over to the woman Nux had called Furiosa as she gathered her bands of grenades. "Where do you want me?" She saw the shimmering figure getting closer and pulled her rifle around to aim at center mass until he was close enough to identify as the man who had run off when she first got there. He dropped bullets at their feet and gestured at her.

"Get more ammo."

"Help yourself to the guns." He gave her a sharp look. "I'm serious. Anyone who knows how to use them can grab one. They're useless sitting in a bag. I have a few holsters, if you can get them to stay on."

Everyone got back on the rig, and Six pulled her goggles back down over her eyes before climbing onto the back of the truck in the rear gunner's cab. The motion made her stomach turn at first, and she breathed very carefully to avoid throwing up the water she'd drunk.

It was later that Nux came to check on her. "Seen anything?"

"No. Just sand. Where are we headed?"

"They call it The Green Place. Furiosa was born there."

"I see. When was the last time you slept?"

"Before we left the Citadel. Two days."

"Get some rest. I won't let anything get your redhead."

"She's not mine," he said quickly. "She used to belong to Immortan Joe. She's far too Shiny for me."

"Shiny?"

"Like Chrome."

She nodded slowly. It wouldn't be the first time she picked up a new dialect. "When we stop again, I want to take a look at those. They look like they're blocking your veins."

"Aye, they do. Don't want to sleep. I get night fevers."

She frowned. "Tell me more about how you feel. I think I could help you."

He gave her a rundown of symptoms as she nodded encouragingly and made notes in her Pip-boy. "So, what do you think?"

"I think I can help you. But it might take a while. I can give you something for the pain, if you want, and I'll keep watch while you sleep. Drink some water." She handed him one of her bottles and pulled out the doctor's bag that held all of the medicine she'd collected back in the USA and on their ship's route. "May I check a few things? I just need to touch your hands and feet, and check your pulse. Does your head hurt?"

"All the time. Go ahead," he told her when her hands hesitated above his. Her hands were warm and calloused, and he could see the scars on her arms in the moonlight. "What got ya?" He ran a single finger over the deepest claw mark on her collar bone.

"Deathclaw. They're these huge, ugly creatures that try their level best to tear your head from your body if you ain't careful." She carefully felt at his joints. "Tell me if anything hurts. May I feel around your lumps there?"

"Careful, they hurt all the time."

"The lumps, or what's around them?"

"Both?" He shrugged. "Everything hurts out here. I can't tell what's what, you know?"

She nodded. "Of course. Here, tell you what. the second I can look at some of your blood through this, I'll let you know if I can help." She held up a reflector microscope.

"Alright. Thanks, mate." He leaned against the wall of the rear cab and looked at her thoughtfully. "You came across the water?"

"I heard tell of this place through some sea merchants. They needed a hired gun with a strong stomach, so I came with them to trade. They got taken off by some guys with spiked vehicles, and I hid long enough to get the hell out of there. I would have left, but I don't know how to drive a boat."

"You got lucky. Them bastards would as soon torture you as... well... You're whole and shiny enough, they might've wanted you for breeding stock."

She gave a short laugh. "I can't bear children. There's something wrong with my insides."

"Then they would have used you for something else, maybe, but you still would have been stuck in hell."

"Then I'm glad I found the lot of you. Get some rest. I promise I'll wake you if anything interesting happens." She'd folded her bedroll to sit on, and shook out the blanket for him. "Here." He curled into the small space beside her with the blanket wrapped around his shoulders. His eyes didn't close until she'd settled back into a more comfortable position with her hand on his shoulder for balance and her thigh against his arm. She let him sleep until he woke from his first nightmare in a cold sweat, then asked him to keep watch while she slept.

He seemed glad for the task, and she nodded off next to him as the sky began to lighten. She slept until Nux shook her awake two hours after sunrise. She groaned and rubbed at her eyes under her goggles before she sat up. "What happened?"

He shook his head. "Nothin' yet. Thought I might've heard a motorcycle."

She nodded and sat up to drink some more of her water. "We'll sit back to back up here and watch. They've got at least two sets of eyes on the road up there, we should have the same back here."

Nux nodded and took up his new position. The Courier had the thought that he would've made a good companion in the Mojave, or even in the Capitol. "How many moons are you?"

"What?" She kept her eyes on the surrounding landscape.

"How old are you?" When she didn't answer right away, he told her, "I'm nearly two hundred fifty moons, or close to it."

Six did some mental math, then went over the numbers in her head again before replying, "I think... we still used old-world time and I grew up in a Vault, so maybe three hundred or more?"

He nodded, even though he knew she wasn't looking at him. "Bombs fell across the saltwater?"

"Yeah. We don't have any rigs or bikes or anything. A lot of buildings are blown up or burned down."

The truck stopped, and Furiosa got out and started yelling to what Six saw was a woman up in a tower. Six crawled out of the rear cab with her rifle ready and waited until Furiosa turned and waved her over. "Nux," She tilted her head toward the ladder, and he went ahead of her, dropping the last few feet to the ground as she made her way carefully down and cautiously over to the group of women.

"An' who's this one?"

"Courier Six," Furiosa spoke up.

"I came on a boat from the United States of America. Or what was, I suppose. Meeting your Furiosa was fortunate."

"Careful, we may still die yet."

They talked about the Green Place, talked about how they'd passed it, how the water was sour and irradiated. When Furiosa walked away, Six spoke up. "I have seeds that grow in quagmires like that. Called punga, they can absorb radiation in the body."

The old woman with a satchel turned her head. "Let me see." She knelt next to Six as the younger went through her satchel and pulled out a plastic bottle that rattled when she shook it. The Dag peered over her shoulder, and Six tilted her head so the blond could have a better view. The old woman tilted the bottle so a few seeds fell into her palm and peered at them curiously. "Never seen anything like them. Must be native to your home. They might not take here."

"Yeah, but they're meant to grow where nothing else does. It's worth a shot anyway. Take some with you."

Everyone got ready to camp down for the night later, and Capable moved to block her path to the top cab. "Yes?"

"Nux said you think you can make him well."

"I believe I can help, yes. The tumors are the problem, they're making him anemic."

"You'd better not be lying."

"I'll know more once I look at his blood. I promise I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't think I could fix the problem." She took a long look at the redhead. "Tell me what you're all running from."

They sat together in the light of a fire lamp. Max regarded Nux carefully as the younger man watched them from the top of the war rig. "Is she good?" He jerked his head toward the two women.

"Which one?" Nux watched them, leaning over a book and pointing to pages.

Max paused, considering. "Both."

"Six thinks she can make me better, if we can hold still long enough."

"The redhead?"

"I dunno. They're close over there." Six put her arm around Capable and tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear.

Max raised his eyebrows and scanned the horizon, keeping an ear out for engines and an eye out for lights. "Good luck with that, mate."

Nux shook the Courier awake halfway through the night. She groaned and rolled away from Capable's back as she sat up. "Nux?"

"Yeah, just me. Your shift on watch. You and one of the Vuvalini."

She nodded and moved to her knees in front of him in one smooth motion. "Okay. Keep her warm, okay? I don't want to wake her to move." She put her hand on his shoulder to help her stand and kept it there for a moment. "I hope I can help you."


	2. Chapter 2

The night was quiet, and the morning brought talk of plans to leave, across the salt flats and hope for the best. Six shook her head. "I don't think it's a good idea. We could die out there on the salt."

"We could die here," Toast pointed out.

"Where are the men who were following you?"

"Probably waiting for us to come back."

"And who is guarding your Citadel?" She licked her lips and managed to grin.

Nux and Furiosa looked at each other. "No one."

"Then why not take the Citadel?" Max turned his head to stare at her, and she understood the question in his eyes. "I may have some experience with usurping a throne."

"They'll see us and give chase," Furiosa told her.

"And I'm a little suicidal. If everyone else is on board, I'm willing to kill whoever you want me to."

"That would be everyone in that war party."

Six nodded. "I understand that. I'm hoping to have help. I heard about what's across that salt, and it's more of the same like this. If you're telling me that this 'Joe' asshole has an underground lake at his disposal, food, shelter; I will die trying to make sure that you are the one with that power." She folded her arms. "What do you, any of you, have left to lose?"

"Our lives, for one," Cheedo spoke up.

"And you could die out there of dehydration and never know what it is to rebuild a community. You spoke of redemption, and this is your chance! You can take that city, make it flourish with your seeds."

"Do you not care at all for your own life?" Toast asked her.

"Not as it relates to me, no. But I don't die so easy, so I must have a purpose. I figure it's my purpose to dive headlong into things and clear the way of the biggest monsters, because it's what I always wind up doing. Now. Describe to me the people I will need to shoot."

Capable started talking, describing a list of men in detail with interjections from the other three ex-wives. Nux broke in every now and a again to describe vehicles and functions on the vehicles, and Six listened closely to their words. "So how are we going in?" The keeper asked. "Are you the spearhead, girl? You'll need a driver."

"I don't want to force anyone to-"

"I'll do it." Nux spoke up. "I can drive anything. We'll go in first, get you up on a perch and get the big names, yeah?"

"Are you sure? This could be a suicide mission."

He grinned at her, but it was more a baring of teeth than an expression of joy. "If you die, I won't live much longer anyway. I've a reason to be alive until you're killed, and by then, we're a distraction from Furiosa."

"You could sneak past them all if we cause enough of a ruckus."

One of the Vuvalini chuckled. "Alright. How do you plan to cause this 'ruckus'?"

The Courier gestured to her bandoleer of grenades. "I have good aim. Figure if I get one of these underneath a Rig, it should do quite a bit of damage."

"Well, what are we waitin' for?" The Seedkeeper asked.

"Okay, let's go. Once you hear us start shooting, head for the citadel," Nux said to Furiosa. "We'll keep them off your back."

"We're not leaving you behind," Furiosa stated. "You'll create a disturbance, we'll come in and help finish. Then we're all going to the Citadel."

Six nodded. "However you want to play it."

They said their goodbyes and well-wishes, and Capable looked at Six, then at Nux. "You had both better come out of this alive. We're not finished, and you know it." Her bright eyes bored into Six's. "We can talk about it when this is over. The three of us."

Six couldn't stop the smile that crept up her face. "As you wish. Nux, let's hit the road."

"Ever been on a bike before?"

"No."

"When I lean, you lean." He got on the bike and tapped a notch on the frame. "Put your feet here. Your arms go around me. You've never done this before. Just trust me."

She nodded. "I trust you." She got on behind him and sat with her thighs squeezing his while she put her goggles down and pulled her scarf over her mouth. Nux did the same, and once her arms were tight around him, he took off. She squeezed once with her thighs, and he felt a warm sensation go up his spine at the way she was holding on to him.

Her words played over and over again in his mind, and he found them high ground to scout for the war party. I trust you. "Let me," He held his hand out for the binoculars hanging around her neck, and she gave them up easily enough to him. "There!" He pointed, and shoved the binoculars into her hands for her to look. "Think you can make a shot from here?"

She hesitated. "There's no better spot?"

"Not that isn't right on top of them. Any closer and they might hear us."

She nodded. "Okay. Keep an eye out for scouts and other undesirables." She pulled her sniper rifle from across her back and started setting up for her shots.

Nux kept a rotating eye on the land around them as she took the first and second shots, paused, took three more and reloaded as he heard engines fire up in the distance. "Shoot at any engines you can see."

"Got it." She fired twice, and Nux watched through the binoculars as the People Eater's car exploded, taking out others with the shrapnel. "What about the other Warboys?"

"They will reach Valhalla. Did you get the giant one with the breathing machine?"

"I don't know. The pale one with the mask is dead, and the man with the nose-piece. Where is Furiosa?"

"There! Get the chase cars before they go out after them."

More well-placed shots came, and she dug into her bag for more ammunition. "Twelve more bullets, and we have to get closer. What do you think, is that enough carnage?"

Nux surveyed the camp. Some Warboys were trying to get vehicles turned back over, and he saw Slit among them. "Furiosa's coming down, Vuvalini ahead of her. Let's go join the party."

Six took one last shot at the war rig decked out with speakers, and the engine started smoking as she saw Furiosa's rig come up through the smoke and flames. "Let's go."

They rode toward the war party, and Six carefully took her Weathered 10mm from its holster. She'd fitted it with an extended magazine before coming to Australia, and she hoped it was enough. "The fuck are you doing?" Nux shouted over the roar of engines.

"Trust me!" She carefully twisted her upper body to look at the pursuit vehicle on their tail, took aim, and shattered the glass in front of the driver, who screamed as his eyes got hit with glass, fired again and took out the Lancer. She wrapped her arms back around his torso and whooped. She saw a Warboy trying to climb Furiosa's rig and shot him through the thigh as he scrabbled up the side.

Time seemed to slow down as one of the pole-cat bikes moved along side them and grabbed Six around her torso. She let go of Nux so he wouldn't wreck his bike and rocked her head back into the jaw of the Pole-cat as hard as she could. He grunted, and she managed to pull her combat knife and jam it into his gut, dragging up to spill intestines. the guy at the bottom got covered in fluids and slipped from his own position at the bottom of the pendulum as he screamed.

Six hit the ground and rolled out of the way of a bike before jumping up and firing at the driver of the bike that had tried to run her down. His bike crashed, and his pole-cat jumped to Furiosa's rig. One of the Vuvalini took him out, and she saw Nux make a sharp U-turn and come back toward her. She wiped her knife on her pant leg and swung her leg over the seat the second he got to her. He grabbed her arm for a moment and patted her hand briefly before taking off again to help corral the remaining Warboys.

Furiosa was shouting above the din of the engines, and Nux cut his as the Vuvalini did the same. Furiosa was standing over Immortan Joe's dead body and Six had a feeling that this was a turning point. Nux turned his head to speak directly into her ear. "You're so very Chrome." He hesitated. "I was worried for you when you let go."

She pressed her lips close to his ear. "I've had worse. Capable looks like she did okay."

"She got her licks in, alright." He rubbed his ear when they turned to look at Furiosa, then put his hand back over hers, still resting at his waist. "You're a good Lancer."

"Thank you."

When the got back to the Citadel, Furiosa waved them onto the platform, and they leaned down to help The Wretched get onto the platform with them as the water was released. Everyone got shuffled around, and Six managed to keep Capable with her, but Nux got lost in a throng of WarBoys.

"We need to find him. We'll find somewhere to sleep later."

Six nodded. "You're right. Lead the way."

They headed toward the scent of engine oil, and Six deftly climbed atop a vehicle to get a better look at the throng moving and repairing the vehicles. She stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled, bringing all eyes to herself and Capable. "Where is Nux?"

About half of them shrug, but one tall, lanky bloke comes forward and points toward another hallway. "He went to the Organic Mechanic."


	3. Chapter 3

Capable inhaled sharply and tugged at the hem of Six's shirt. "Follow me. You'll have a new job soon, if he's doing what I think he's doing."

They ran through the halls and into a locked door. The Courier cursed and eyed the lock. "Careful, I don't want to fall on you." Capable moved out of her way, and Six kicked just below the handle. The door cracked, and she kicked again. The door ripped away, swung back and hit the wall before bouncing back. "Nux! Let him go."

The purple-tinged man gasped for breath as Nux did as she asked. "He's been killing us!"

"Yes, I understand that. But I need to ask him some questions before we kill him back, okay? Then I'll let you and the rest of the Warboys do what you will to this fuck, alright? Knowledge is power." She turned on the Organic Mechanic and shoved him against a wall with her arm across his collarbone. "Now. You will tell me the truth about what you know of their illness. You will tell me what is in that white paint, and why in the FUCK you and this 'Immortan' Joe have convinced them that water is an addiction and not a basic bodily need. Then you will pay in whatever way the Warboys see fit. If you lie, you will not die. You'll be kept alive and fucking tortured by _me_ until the day your body finally gives out from stress. Have I made myself clear?" They were nearly matched for height, but she seemed to tower over him in that moment.

The man nodded vigorously. "Yes,yes. Very clear." He started rattling off how they made the white paint, where they got the white clay and what they added to it to make it have more staying power.

Partway through, she paused him. "Capable, can you write?"

"Yes."

"Write down everything he's said. I can wait while you do."

She nodded and grabbed a piece of charcoal and started writing on the wall with it. When she came to the end, she looked at Six again. "I'm ready when you are."

Six interrogated him for long enough that the light changed in the room. "Is there anything else? Do you keep records? Are there any medical texts?" He hesitated, and she punched him hard enough to rock his head back. "WHERE?"

Nux watched the Organic Mechanic stutter through how their records were kept and not kept, and point to moldering, brittle texts from before the gas wars. He murmured to Capable as his leg twitched with nervous energy. "She's Chrome."

"She shines under conditions that should kill her."

"So do you."

"And you," Capable pointed out. "You should start organizing your Warboys. Tell them to scrub the paint from their bodies and the walls where you all sleep. And drink some water. Plenty of it."

"Why would they listen to me?"

"You've come back from the dead."

Nux nodded slightly. "Alright. And the Organic Mechanic?"

"Tell them I will bring him to them once I'm finished here, which shouldn't be too much longer." Six spoke up.

"And where should I meet you when it's all finished?"

"At the Vault," Capable spoke up. "Toast is going to get some help taking off the door."

Six picked the Organic Mechanic's brain until she felt satisfied that she knew all he could tell her, and where to find more information. Capable led them to where the Warboys slept, following the sound of yelling and Nux shouting above it all. Six whistled again, and Nux turned to her. "You've got to teach me how to do that."

She grinned and shoved the Organic forward. "This is the man that has made sure you all stay sick. He and the Immortan have been lying to you." She watched scrubbed-clean faces look upon her like either a god or a madman. "I am taking his position, and you may do with him as you see fit. I promise you, and everyone in the Citadel, will get the best care I can offer."

Capable smiled and whispered to Nux, "I told you she'd stay."

"But for how long?"

Nux set warpups to scrubbing down the lower walls while a group of the older boys took the Organic Mechanic out of the room. They set up rope and chain pulleys to get up high to scrub at the paint. "Make sure it all comes off," he shouted. "And wash again when you're done." He looked at Six for confirmation, and she nodded.

"Are you coming with us, Nux? They've got this well in hand, and you've been on Fury Road for four days. It's time for you to get your blood looked at." Six held out her hand for his, and he stared at her hand for a moment before grasping it. "Come on, we'll make sure everyone eats and I'll take a few samples, okay?"

They passed the kitchens, where some of the Milk Mothers were handing out rations and steadily giving people water. The Mothers were quick to give them food and shoo them along before too many people noticed they were there. They walked back through the catacombs and up stairs to The Vault. Toast, Cheedo, and Furiosa were talking with a Black Thumb as he tried to jimmy the pins from the hinges. "They're not meant to come off. I can make it stand open, probably, but I don't know if we can take it off tonight."

Nux and Six both broke off to inspect the hinges themselves, and Six spoke first. "He's right. They're not meant to come off. It'd take days, maybe a week to get the pins to come loose. If it were that simple to take the door off, you would have figured it out already."

Furiosa nodded. "Jam the door open then, and we can work on hanging curtains."

Six took a blood sample from Nux and carefully biopsied the growths as they sat in the common area of the Vault, labeling the samples 'Larry' and 'Barry' at Nux's request. Cheedo watched curiously over her shoulder. "How do you know what to look for in all of that?"

"My father was a Doctor. I made him teach me."

"Made him?"

"Yes. He thought I couldn't handle a little blood." She smiled wryly at the other woman. "We both know that women can handle a bit of blood." Cheedo gave a snort of laughter with her nod. "Do you want me to teach you to read these? I'll need some help. We have a lot of sick people around here."

She nodded. "Just to read the samples, right? I... I can handle my own blood just fine... I don't know that I could handle anyone else's blood or... fluids."

"Yeah, just the samples. Tell me what you want to know, and we'll start tomorrow. Has anyone seen Dag?"

"She's getting some seeds started," Toast spoke up. "She knew they'd take some time to grow, so she said she wanted an early start."

Six nodded and looked to Furiosa. "So. You've taken the Citadel. Now what?"

Furiosa looked at her and considered. "Well, I hear the old Organic Mechanic has been left to the mercy of the masses that he kept ill, and you're our new... Doctor."

"Yes, with Cheedo as my assistant. And anyone else who wants to learn. Spreading knowledge is important, especially if you ever need me on the Road with you."

Furiosa nodded. "Then I'll leave that to you and whoever joins up. Nux, you'll help wrangle the Warboys?"

"Yes, Imperator-"

"Furiosa."

"Yes, Furiosa." He shrugged. "But if it's all the same to you, I'll keep 'Black Thumb'."

"Oi, have you three finally gotten together? Or are you still dancing about it?" The Dag put her head on Capable's shoulder.

"Dag! Now is hardly the time or the place." Capable was blushing while Toast raised her eyebrows at them. "Toast, hush."

"I didn't say anything. But follow me, I think I can solve your sleeping arrangement problem that's going to come up soon." She led them down the hall and to an offshoot where some of the Milk Mothers had slept. "They've taken over his old chambers for themselves."

"Good for them," Nux nodded.

"I know they have a room for bathing... which you all should probably do." She wiped a smear of blood off Six's neck. "Eat, have a chat... do whatever you need to do with some privacy, hmm?"

"Toast!"

"Oh, come on. Have fun."

Six finally realized that she was getting into a relationship with someone who had only been raped, and another who was probably a virgin. They went in to the room, and she spoke. "Neither of you have to do anything you don't want to." She looked at Capable. "You are allowed to say 'no'. We," she gestured to Nux, "will always back off if you say so."

"Even... in the middle? or near the end?" She made a show of looking them in the eyes, even though she was focusing on a crack in the wall.

"Well, yeah," Nux nodded. "I..." he hesitated, groping for words. "I don't want you to feel like a Thing anymore." He thought for a moment, then spoke again as he turned his head to look at Six. "And you're not a Thing, either. Tell me if I..." He looked queasy. "I don't want you to feel like a Thing with me."

Six kissed his cheek and yanked back. "You're burning up, darling. Capable, water, please. Show me where..."

"This way, I think. This is set up much like Joe's chambers." She guided them all to a room with a pool of water, like in the Vault, and got Nux to sit with his feet in the water while Six started running a cool cloth over him. "Are you going to be sick?"

Nux nodded. "Yeah," he managed, accepting the bucket from her as his stomach decided it needed to be empty again. The Courier kept touching him with the cool cloth as he gagged, keeping a soothing motion up as she murmured into his ear.

"It's okay, you're going to be okay. Capable, sweetheart, can you fetch me my black leather bag?" The redhead nodded and darted out of the room. "Drink. Slowly," she added as an afterthought. She cupped her hands and brought them to Nux's lips.

The first mouthful, he used to swish around his mouth and spat out into the bucket. Six cupped her hands again, and he drank as slowly as he could. "Thank you," He mumbled as his head fell to her shoulder. She kissed his shaved scalp, and he shivered at the way his spine tingled. "I'm sorry-"

"There's nothing to be sorry for, darling." She smiled against his skin as capable came back in with the doctor's bag. "I'm going to give you another vitamin, with..."

"I brought the bowl of broth," Capable offered. "His stomach should be able to handle that."

"You're right, it should. Once the plants start producing food, everyone will get a more varied diet, which should help with a lot of the sickness. I only have five more vitamins after this, though, so Nux is the one that's going to get them."

"There are others more worthy-" He started.

"You and yours saved my life. I would have died out there in the heat without you. Now it's my turn to save yours." She broke the vitamin in half. "Half now, and if you can keep it down, half after we bathe, okay?"

Nux nodded and took the pill, swallowing with a mouthful of broth as Six stood and started pulling off her clothes to bathe. He could hear Capable doing the same, and he hesitantly stood on shaky legs to unbuckle his pants, even as Capable reached out to steady him. Her hands were cool and dry on his fevered skin. "What's in the paint that makes you so angry?"

"Lead. I'm almost positive you all have severe lead poisoning." Six shook her head.


	4. Chapter 4

"Lead poisoning, vitamin deficiencies, and dehydration are what I suspect are making almost everyone so sick." Six sat about a foot away from him in the shallow pool and twisted her head to look at Capable. "So. We three want to form... some kind of bond, beyond friendship? Correct me if I'm wrong in that assumption." She felt her fingers twitch for a cigarette, no matter how long ago she'd quit and why. Instead, she started trying to rub the dirt out of her hair where it hung in the water.

"That sounds about right." Capable sat on the other side of Nux, and watched as he became fascinated with the way her hair curled and moved along her skin while the Courier submerged her entire self in the water, scrubbing at her scalp as she came up to rinse the dirt away. "Better?"

"Yes." She looked around for a moment and climbed out of the pool to fetch a rag to rub at her skin. She knew they both saw the scars where they'd taken her spine, and the other for her heart when Capable sucked in a breath. "It's a long story, all these scars. None of them hurt to touch, and they're all long healed." Six sat back down in the water and turned to Nux. "And you? What do you want out of this?"

He hesitated, then spoke slowly as he tried to put words to what he wanted. "I... I don't know? I want to be with you, both of you." He sounded very sure of himself in that moment, and hesitant as he continued. "But not... uh..." he made a grasping motion with his hand. "But not have you. You're not... _things_. I'd..." His eyes darted around the room. "I'd like to spend time together. And sleep together." He looked toward the bedroom area, then awkwardly at the women in front of him. "I understand if you don't want... as much."

Six and Capable shared a long look, and Six finally spoke. "When you say 'sleep together', what does that mean to you, Nux?"

He squinted at her. "Sleeping? In the same place? Why? What else can it mean? And what did you mean about women and blood, back in the Vault?"

"I was talking about moon cycles." He looked at her with a blank stare. "Right. Patriarchal culture. A healthy woman who can have children has a cycle. an egg is released from her ovaries, and if there is a man's... sperm there to meet it, that's how she becomes pregnant. at the same time, her uterus, where the baby would live, creates a lining of blood and tissue for the possible baby. if there isn't sperm to meet the egg, in another couple of weeks or so the lining will slough off and out of her vagina. She'll cramp up, maybe have mood swings, and then the cycle repeats itself."

He blinked at her and turned to Capable. "This happens to you?"

She nodded. "It does."

"And to you?"

Six shook her head. "Not in a long time, nearly twelve moons now. That could be a for a few different reasons. I was heavier before, and they came every twenty-eight days exactly, but when I started my life outside my own Vault, I lost a lot of weight and they became irregular, then stopped altogether. I think if maybe I was eating regularly again, it could come back."

"And it only lasts a day?"

"Oh, no. somewhere between three and seven days."

Something in his eyes had changed, and he looked at them in wonder. "You bleed for seven days and don't die?"

"It's not all blood. Some of it's tissue. But yes."

"That is so... chrome." Nux reached out to touch the very edge of a forming bruise near the Courier's knee with his fingertip. "You'll be all black and blue tomorrow, with the way you fell. Have you got anything in that bag for yourself?"

"I'll be fine. Your people need it-"

"Angharad made a rub for bruises. I know where she kept it." Capable got up out of the water and started toward the door.

"You may want to put on some clothes, Capable." Six called with a smile in her voice.

Nux watched from the pool as Capable dressed and Six came back to sit with him and rub at her skin with the cloth. He finally saw the reddish brown of her skin under all the grit and the shiny black of her hair once she felt clean enough to stop scrubbing at herself and turn her attentions on him. "What?" He'd brought his knees to his chest and locked his arms around himself as he'd watched her, unsure what to make of the way his blood was rushing alternately to his face and his groin.

She smiled and rubbed her fingers against his arm. "Is it okay for me to wash you down? Or do you want to do it?"

He hesitated for a long moment. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Not at all."

"Then would you?" He un-clenched his arms from around his knees as she slipped behind him and got up on her knees to start at the top of his head and work her way down. The cloth was rough without being painful, and her hands were rough against his body without putting pressure anywhere that hurt. "You don't 'ave to be so careful. I won't fall apart."

She kissed the back of his head, then behind one ear. "Oh, I know you're not made of glass. I'd just like to take my time getting to know your body as you'll get to know mine. You are not fragile, but we all need to rest before we get too carried away with each other. And I won't know much about your friends here until I can get some sunlight to use my microscope."

He sighed. "I know. D'you think I'll be able to keep usin' my arm if you 'ave to... take them?"

"Of course. I've done surgery before, and they're all running around the wasteland, moving just fine. It's going to take a little time, though, so you'll have to sit out for a little while while you heal up. I'm going to try and fix everyone in shifts, just in case someone wants to test our defenses."

"You've got it all figured out on your end, don't you?"

"Oh, I'm sure I'll hit a few bumps along the way, but once I have Cheedo trained on what to look for and maybe find a few more people willing to learn how to do what I do, I think we'll be okay." She smiled and kissed his shoulder again. "Do you want to take over below the waist? Or do you want me to keep going?"

"I... I'll..." He took the cloth from her to scrub down his lower half. He expected her to withdraw her hands, and leaned back into her body when she didn't stop touching him.

Capable came back with a cake of soap and an Old- World glass jar full of some herb-heavy concoction and disrobed again to get back into the water. "You can put the rub on after you wash." She handed Six the soap.

Six held her hand out to Nux for the cloth and lathered it up to wash her whole self again as they looked on. "You know, if you're going to stare, you could at least wash my back." She grinned over her shoulder as Capable tapped Nux forward. "Seems only fair, since I got yours."

Nux took the cloth from her and hesitated when she leaned forward to rub the soap into her hair. "Is... is there a certain way..."

"Like this." Capable stood behind him and reached one arm around his waist and the other to lace her fingers with his as they held the cloth. "You want to scrub her back without pushing her over, yeah? Small circles, like she was doing on her front." Capable didn't sit back down, and kept her arm around his torso.

When the soap had finally been rinsed from her body, they saw that her skin was a medium reddish brown, darker on her arms and face than her legs and torso, and her hair was so black it almost shined blue. There were scars on her spine, and a few had been visible on her hairline, but the most noticeable were the set on her chest and collar bones. The surgical scar was only narrowly avoided by the Deathclaw scar.

She turned with the soap and cloth held out. "Who's next?"

Nux gestured Capable forward and stepped out of their way as Capable turned her back to Six. He could see the bruise's edges already turning a sickly yellow-green, radiating all the way up her side. Six washed Capable's back and took a step backward, allowing the redhead to cleanse the rest of her body and rinse.

It was Capable that offered the soap and cloth to Nux, and he hesitantly stood and turned around, giving her his back to wash. Six relaxed in the cool water, and watched as the dirt from their scrubbing ran off the top of the water.

Once everyone was out of the pool, Capable found towels for them to dry with, and found shift-dresses for herself and Six, and a pair of linen pants with a drawstring for Nux to wear while they slept. The three of them faced the bed, looking at it and alternately each other. "So... who gets the middle?" Capable asked.

"Do you want it?" asked Six as she worked her hair into a french braid.

"Not really." The other woman shook her head. "Nux?"

"I don't want to be sick on one of you."

Six nodded. "I can sleep anywhere. And we should all sleep. Nux, the other half of the vitamin." She pressed it into his hand, and he swallowed it down with the last of the bland broth. "You think you can sleep?"

"Yeah, think so."

Their night was quiet, broken only by sleepy mumbling between Six and Nux, whom Capable found both tended to talk in their sleep.

Six turned over with a sigh and flung her arm around Capable's middle. "Tell Arcade to stop re-arranging my books," she mumbled with her nose in Capable's hair. "He's got them all wrong."

A moment later and Nux had curled himself around Six with a sleepy groan. "No, Slit, keep your hands off the fucking engine. You're a Lancer for a reason."

"The Deathclaws are blind, Veronica, calm down. And stop antagonizing Cass." She twisted around so her back was flush against Capable's, and Nux grumbled and re-arranged himself to tuck his head under her chin.

"I wasn't," Nux mumbled against her skin. "You dunno sparring when ya see it."

"Lucky she didn't kick your ass," Six mumbled back.

"Yeah, I'm faster," Nux answered.

Capable pressed her lips together to keep from laughing outright as their separate conversations merged into one very strange one. Six turned onto her back, and Nux kept his head on her chest as she settled her arms around him. "The fuck did I tell you about the Books, Gannon? They're in the order I want them to be."

Nux's hand opened and closed on Capable's stomach, bunching the fabric of her shift. "I know, I tried to tell him," Nux muttered.

Capable couldn't keep herself from giggling any longer. Six groaned and cracked one eye open in the moonlight. "What's funny?"

Nux looked up at them both with bleary eyes. "Is is morning?" He rubbed at his eyes before resting his head on Six's chest again.

"No, Capable's laughing at us, I think." Six kissed the top of his head. "Are you going to be okay, Capable?"

She giggled a little longer before trying to explain herself. "You were talking in your sleep, and at first you were having two separate conversations, you know? And then," she giggled and touched Nux's hand, picking it up to clasp in her own, "It kind of became one conversation that you were both having. I dunno, I guess you had to be there."

"Slit used to whine about me talking in my sleep all the time," Nux offered. "Said he was surprised my jaw didn't hurt, with how much I used it."

Six shrugged and pressed her lips to his shaved scalp again. "Sorry we kept you up."

"I don't mind. I think it's sweet." Capable couldn't keep the smile off her face as she drifted off for the second time.


End file.
